Development: Gender Matters

This article from the journal Gender, Technology and Development provides a striking illustration of the importance of understanding gender relationships when designing development programs. “Empowerment and Disempowerment of Forest Women in Uttarakhand, India” examines the community impacts of a World Bank-funded forestry project. “Instead of increasing women’s empowerment, the top-down interventions… are doing the opposite by disrupting and marginalizing their own struggles and achievements, transferring power and authority to the forest department and local elite men,” the author notes.